New Delhi: Apple CEO Tim Cook on Friday said he was “very bullish on India,” where the company saw record quarterly revenue growth in the quarter ended 31 December, 2022.
The remarks come as the US-based technology behemoth reports a quarterly revenue of $117.2 billion for the first quarter of fiscal 2023, a 5 per cent decrease year over year.
“Looking at the business in India, we set a quarterly revenue record and grew very strong double digits year over year and so we feel very good about how we performed. That’s despite the headwinds that we talked about,” Cook said while answering analyst questions on India during the Q1 ’23 earnings call Friday morning.
He added that the company’s revenue was down 5 per cent year over year as a result of a “challenging environment.”
Cook outlined three factors that impacted the company’s revenue performance during the quarter. First, the foreign exchange headwinds; second, the Covid-19-related challenges that significantly impacted the supply of the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max; and lastly, a challenging macroeconomic environment as the world continues to face unprecedented circumstances, from inflation to war in Eastern Europe to the enduring impacts of the pandemic, to which “Apple is not immune”.
“…Because of these (supply) constraints, we had significantly less iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max supply than we planned, causing ship times to extend far beyond what we had anticipated… Production is now back where we want it to be,” he added.
In his opening remarks during the call, Cook said, “We set all time revenue records in a number of markets, including Canada, Indonesia, Mexico, Spain, Turkey, and Vietnam along with quarterly records in Brazil and India.”
Likewise, according to the company’s CFO, Luca Maestri, the growth is coming from every major product category and geographic segment, with strong double-digit increases in emerging markets.
Cook further said that India is a hugely exciting market for Apple and a “major focus.” “We brought the online store to India in 2020 and will soon bring Apple Retail. We are putting a lot of emphasis on the market. There’s been a lot going on from financing options and trade-ins to make products more affordable and give people more options to buy,” he added.
On the opportunity in India post-Covid, Cook added that the tech giant did fairly well throughout the pandemic in the country. “I’m even more bullish now, hopefully on the other side of it. That’s the reason why we are investing there by bringing retail there, bringing the online store there and putting out a significant amount of energy there. I’m very bullish on India.”
Also read: Apple forecasts another revenue decline even with improving iPhone sales